


Untitled

by capitainpistol



Category: Xena: Warrior Princess
Genre: Angst and Humor, Body Horror, Eventual Romance, F/F, Fluff and Angst, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Pyromania, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-12
Updated: 2020-07-12
Packaged: 2021-03-05 02:28:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,194
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25226827
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/capitainpistol/pseuds/capitainpistol
Summary: Aphrodite decides to save Calllisto and travel with her. Post S3 AU.
Relationships: Callisto/Aphrodite (Xena)





	Untitled

There was no end to the fire. The lava churned underneath them, so hot the soles of their sandals scraped to nothing as they fought. Heat pored out through the cracks, around them chasms hissing and huffing, their skin, their swords gleaming. Every strike sparking light in the dark cavern, searching. Looking for a way out.

Xena blocked, dodged, parried and nothing Nothing. Callisto screamed and she laughed, and it as if the hell itself moved with her rage, her grief. Xena was done. Done with it. Gabrielle was dead and this.. this. This child...

Callisto felt not Xena's punch nor the bone of her nose break. She went backward, flying without wings and wingless she fell right back down, cracking spine. _I needed tha_ t. She made to stand but blacked out and she came to with laughter. The shadow looked down on her. The glowing shadow of her nightmares, standing between the writhing flames. Ice eyes.

Bright blue stars burning her world and the corpses so many shadows after and it was beautiful, so beautiful and she didn't see her at all, not at all. The shadow had simply not known she existed. Callisto had never laughed harder in her light, not even as she begged the shadow to kill her.

“Do it! Do I!” _If this is Tartarus..., it's not so hot and I'll see her again, in the fields of Asphodel. What else is there? I'll wait for her and I'll fight her again and again. After some rest... yes. I'll fight her until the fire is all there is. </i> _“Kill me!”

Xena lifted her sword and Callisto's giggle choked in her throat as her eyes caught the swing swing rattle of the chakram, same as before. Much prettier up close. Callisto felt again that shame, admiring the destroyer of her world.

How wonderful.

Oh, to be so fierce....

And through tears and gritted teeth, over the shrill laughter of one long dead, Xena let out a held breath and ...

Dropped her sword. It wobbled then went still and began to smoke, the echo touch of mercy abhorrent in the underworld.

“No,” she said, full of disdain, that glimmer of mercy extinguished. Not yet fully accepting the rumbling of the mountain that had just eaten her friend, swallowed her up like that cyclops would have, that day in Potedia. “You want me to suffer, Callisto. Here you have it. Here I am. What else is there?”

Callisto's palms seared as she turned over on her hands and knees, will over pain, uncaring of her body, her corpse. She struggled to reach the sword but she reached it. Bloody sweaty palms faltered, shaking, but somewhere somehow inside Callisto found that fire, it never went out. Never. Never. “You fucking mother fucking BITCH.”

Skin and steel melted together and Callisto crushed her teeth together. She swung at air, aiming at the shadow, btu she fell back down, chin cracked too and this time she could not get up. She licked salty tears and suddenly felt famished, but it would be over soon, before the rest of her face cooked until she could no longer taste. “Please.”

Xena walked away from the sword, from Callisto, from the chasm. <i>Gabrielle, too?</i>

“You can keep it.”

Xena kicked the sword over and Callisto caught it, though she did not know how. At some point the corpse took over. She swing again. Fell again. This time the corpse decided the face had had enough. Turned on her back. The shadow was gone.

“I'll fucking kill you!”

And the shadow was gone, her voice reverberating through hell. “Same old story different day. You better get up, piggy, unless you wnt to become tomorrow's Olympus special.”

Callisto chuckled and when the footsteps died, so did her sobs.

Hand in front of her, she counted her fingers, scratched at the blisters. Thumb first, she found another laugh inside of her. “This little piggy went to the marrrrrket.” She closed it into her palm. Papa. “This little piggy went to the store.” Mother. Down. Three to go. “Annnnd this one,” sister... “And this one...” Everyone. Everyone burned.

“Whoa... morbid much?”

Callisto stared up at a mess of blonde hair and pink... everything. “Oh. You.”

“Like what you've done with the place.” Aphrodite, her legs, her boobs and her birds nest of a hair piece, all of her came down in a languid willowy crouch beside Callisto. Her alabaster skin spotted with sweat. She smelled like apples trees.... “Are those moony eyes you're making at me? Because that totally makes me feel better about this mistake I'm about to make.”

“Do it.” Callisto gripped Xena's sword – her sword now, gods knew why – and with the other wiped her cheek, managing only to smear blood across her face. “Kill me.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know.” Aphrodite rolled her eyes and all the strands of her blonde hair swished with her. Callisto smelled honey now, and flowers. She hated that. Aphrodite did not seem to care. The goddess sounded mildly bored, looking for something to interest her. “You deserve it. You're an awful human being. I get it.”

Callisto rolled her eyes and the pain of that nearly made her cry, but she wouldn't cry in front of this sentient cheesecake. “Not a bad way to go, all in all. I like the irony. Goddess of Love killing me. I'd prefer-“

“Xena, I know. Everyone wants her to stab them, step on them, sit on them.” Aphrodite shrugged. “I like the little one.”

Callisto chuckled. “I liked her husband.”

Aphrodite punched Callisto's shoulder, making the mortal wince in pain. “Don't be mean.”

“Sure. I'll be sweet and nice now, so you can go ahead and murder me.”

Aphrodite softly rested a hand on Callisto's shoulder and healed the broken bone instantly.

“That's cheap.” Callisto said begrudged. She was going to have to provoke this one? Was that even possible? “What about the rest of me?”

Aphrodite backed away to give Callisto the room to sit up and she examined her top to bottom in a detached, observant way. “Attractive. Not as buxom as I am, but then who is, am I right?”

Callisto shrugged and winced at all the other cuts and bruises her best friend Xena left behind. What was this woman doing here? Why was she still talking to her? “So.”

Aphrodite giggled and shrugged up her shoulders, almost embarrassed. “Soooooooo?”

“You won't kill me but you'll heal me, but only my shoulder. That sounds about right for the gods.”

Aphrodite tilted her head at Callisto. “Still mad about that?”

Callisto grinned. “You mean.... the lack of interference?”

Aphrodite had the grace to blush. “You know Xena was _his_ favorite. I can't change what he did, Cal. I can only say I'm sorry he's such a dick”

Callisto frowned at Aphrodite. She smelled wine now. The strong kind she liked. “Why do you smell like that?”

Aphrodite grimaced and sniffed at the air around Callisto. “You're not too hot yourself, Cal.”

“Ok, this stops now. Either kill me or help me out of here. Which ones it's gonna be?”


End file.
